The November FIP Academy webinar revealed interesting new topics

The first presentation, entitled Automatic light positioning and anomaly clusterisation, focused on research to develop methods for optimised light positioning. "The aim is to automatically find the actual [x,y,z] light positions where the images‘ defects are more visible and relatively dominant for inspection purposes," said Melvin Alexis Lara de Leon, who decided to stay in Ostrava after completing his master's degree at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at VSB-TUO, and has been working at the University as a Junior Researcher alongside his doctoral studies since 2020.

Volker Weiser focused on the extremely topical subject of zero-carbon energy carriers. Besides green hydrogen, whose production remains a challenge, this could include silicon - the most abundant element in the Earth's crust after oxygen. "Like carbon or hydrogen, it has the distinct advantage that the combustion products do not have to be collected for direct recycling. It is quite conceivable that the silicon particles could be used in the combustion process like coal to generate electricity in a power plant. The transport and operational safety of silicon particles is not critical. The energy required for production can now be provided by environmentally friendly or regenerative methods," said Weiser. 

The characteristics of the combustion of silicon, with respect to the burning behaviour, combustion temperature, and particle size-dependent combustion time of silicon particles are currently being investigated by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT as quasi-stationary combustion stabilised with a hydrogen-oxygen flame. "The results provide parameters for combustion chamber design and flue gas cleaning. The resulting combustion products are also being characterised. Further investigations are concerned with the potential use of the main combustion product SiO2, for example as construction sand," he added.

FIP Academy webinars are held regularly on the first Thursday of every month. They serve as a platform for scientists from relevant institutions to get to know each other, share knowledge and seek collaboration. The next online seminar will take place on 1 December.